Acer confirms prices rises on laptops from Monday

Acer has become the second vendor to confirm that it will raise product prices from Monday in
response to exchange rate pressures.

Yesterday HP confirmed PC and server prices
will rise by 5 to 10% on 15 September following a rallying of the US currency versus the pound,
which has moved on the spot market in one month from $1.55 to $1.39.

David Drummond, UK managing director at Acer said LCDs would not be impacted for the time being
but distributors would see a 5% increase on notebooks from Monday, impacting dealers late in
September.

“We have a good pipeline of LCD shipments in containers on the sea and in distributors’
warehouses so there will be more of a delay to price rises but laptop prices will go up next week,”
he told Microscope.

“All components are priced in dollars and the pound has moved on the [high street rate] from
$1.96 to $1.76 and clearly that is difficult for anyone to absorb,” Drummond added.

If the dollar continues to strengthen Acer will raise prices another 5% in October but he felt
rises were easier for the channel to manage than reductions, “they tend to make existing
inventories more saleable.”

Drummond said when prices fell, customers tended to hold off buying to see if the cost of kit
would fall further but when prices rose he said it ironically made customers keener to make a
purchase.

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